- Dec 29, 2022
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Halloween Horror Nights 32 (UOR) - News & Info
- Thread starter Brian G.
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- Oct 14, 2011
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- Aug 13, 2016
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This year has featured some of the most wildly incorrect and inconsistent posted wait times that I've ever experienced at HHN.
My favorite example:
I was with a friend who's only able to attend one night this year and did not have Express. They really wanted to see Oddfellow's house, but the posted wait was 60+ much of the night. At one point, I stood across from the entrance for a good 10 minutes watching almost zero people enter the Standby line while the posted time was (and remained) 75. Finally decided to bite the bullet for my friend and agreed to enter the queue... We were back in the park in less than 20 minutes. Obviously, I'd rather this occur than the alternative -- BUT this really hampers any type of time-management planning for guests when you can't even get a close estimate of the amount of time you'll be spending in the lines.
Anyway, I don't know if Operations is trying to control crowd flow with this tactic, or if they are just flat out doing an extremely poor job. Either way, I'm not a fan.
My favorite example:
I was with a friend who's only able to attend one night this year and did not have Express. They really wanted to see Oddfellow's house, but the posted wait was 60+ much of the night. At one point, I stood across from the entrance for a good 10 minutes watching almost zero people enter the Standby line while the posted time was (and remained) 75. Finally decided to bite the bullet for my friend and agreed to enter the queue... We were back in the park in less than 20 minutes. Obviously, I'd rather this occur than the alternative -- BUT this really hampers any type of time-management planning for guests when you can't even get a close estimate of the amount of time you'll be spending in the lines.
Anyway, I don't know if Operations is trying to control crowd flow with this tactic, or if they are just flat out doing an extremely poor job. Either way, I'm not a fan.
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- Feb 28, 2016
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Yeah I've noticed that the posted wait times are way off this year too. Definitely off way more often than they were during HHN31 and HHN30.
Same with last Wednesday, 3 houses down for the night and both Bloodmoon and Monsters had 60 minutes posted while being walk ons, 20 minutes later after walking out both are still posted at 45 with the only actual line for the house being the express queue. It’s a great surprise not having to wait for a house, but these waits are way too inconsistent
Don’t know if it’s the proper place, but Christian Stokes (Hank in FNAF) got a special VIP, with apparently them having FNAF stuff behind closed doors in Orlando!
Maybe they are adding a display to horror makeup? I would think it would be way too early for them to have any props if they were to have a house next year.
- May 6, 2019
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Good lord, if people are complaining about teens going because Stranger Things imagine the 4th graders flooding cuz FNAF
The reason why I pause, is if that was the case; wouldn’t they have already debuted that? Considering Behind The Screams at Hollywood has the animatronics out in full public view, I’d think that would’ve been noted already from VIP tours as it is, or would’ve already of debuted back on the first.
Not doubting, but maybe it’s possible they are using them for a shoot?
- Apr 4, 2020
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I could definitely see FNaF being an early Halloween announcement ala Chucky last year.
- Sep 9, 2019
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Express was no longer than 20 minutes for everything last night
I agree that a pass good for a week would be a good thing. I still do not get that FF/FFP is less of a problem than RoF. Maybe only a week pass or get rid of RoF but only have FF/FFP in September.
It is interesting to me that cost comes up (somewhat flawed since FRI and SAT tend to cost more, I imagine SAT is the one thing that RoF includes that FFP does not. Anyway, my math suggest that RoF is the most expressive of the multi-night passes (w/o Express):
RoF includes 18 nights for $179.99 or around $10 a night if all nights used
FF can access 30 nights for $229.99 or roughly $7.66 per night
FFP has 40 nights for $269.99 or $6.75 per night
Ultimate goes up a bit (but I believe this one includes parking) which is a big bonus, but 48 nights for $399.99 would be $8.33 per night
I doubt many people use all nights of a pass, I assume the Ultimate folks would use more than others, but I have no clue, I just assume folks that use FF/FFP tend to single out RoF as the issue. FWIW, I feel that the 'sold out' nights have felt less crowded than what I felt the weekend prior
It is interesting to me that cost comes up (somewhat flawed since FRI and SAT tend to cost more, I imagine SAT is the one thing that RoF includes that FFP does not. Anyway, my math suggest that RoF is the most expressive of the multi-night passes (w/o Express):
RoF includes 18 nights for $179.99 or around $10 a night if all nights used
FF can access 30 nights for $229.99 or roughly $7.66 per night
FFP has 40 nights for $269.99 or $6.75 per night
Ultimate goes up a bit (but I believe this one includes parking) which is a big bonus, but 48 nights for $399.99 would be $8.33 per night
I doubt many people use all nights of a pass, I assume the Ultimate folks would use more than others, but I have no clue, I just assume folks that use FF/FFP tend to single out RoF as the issue. FWIW, I feel that the 'sold out' nights have felt less crowded than what I felt the weekend prior
- Apr 7, 2010
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Putting aside the RoF/FF debate (I'm sure you're correct, RoF fans are criticizing FF, FF users are criticizing RoF--everyone wants everyone else to pay more without paying more themselves): even if a FF or FFP holder only goes half the nights--and most go a lot more--each 8-hour night is still cheaper than a 2-hour PLF movie in CityWalk. That is not sustainable. That is not sane.
I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of week-long passes, but even those need to be more expensive than current RoF. If anything, more likely every night will be used, unlike the 2-month passes.
My times with Express tonight:
Darkest Deal (posted wait 45min): Entered at 8:54pm, left house at 9:08pm
Oddfellow (posted wait 70min): Entered at 9:13pm, left house at 9:31pm
Dueling Dragons (posted wait 45min): Entered at 9:24pm, left house at 9:41pm
Stranger Things (posted wait 95min): Entered at 9:57pm, left house at 10:31pm
I watched one episode of Battle Bots on Max, ate one cookie, and refilled my water bottle one time. I have Ultimate Frequent Fear and live about 30-40 minutes from Universal so I go for an hour or two per night. I could have easily done all ten houses before midnight but I try to always leave wanting to come back so it's still exciting.
Oddfellow is such a great house but I think Darkest Deal could be the house of the year. Stranger Things is one of the biggest whiffs I've seen going to HHN. It's just not a HHN quality house in my opinion.
Darkest Deal (posted wait 45min): Entered at 8:54pm, left house at 9:08pm
Oddfellow (posted wait 70min): Entered at 9:13pm, left house at 9:31pm
Dueling Dragons (posted wait 45min): Entered at 9:24pm, left house at 9:41pm
Stranger Things (posted wait 95min): Entered at 9:57pm, left house at 10:31pm
I watched one episode of Battle Bots on Max, ate one cookie, and refilled my water bottle one time. I have Ultimate Frequent Fear and live about 30-40 minutes from Universal so I go for an hour or two per night. I could have easily done all ten houses before midnight but I try to always leave wanting to come back so it's still exciting.
Oddfellow is such a great house but I think Darkest Deal could be the house of the year. Stranger Things is one of the biggest whiffs I've seen going to HHN. It's just not a HHN quality house in my opinion.
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- Apr 26, 2018
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Definitely getting worse every year, and it seems like a crowd manipulation tactic. There’s no way that after decades of this event, and decades of line management, they still can’t calculate wait times accurately. They are doing it with popular rides like hagrid’s as well. Artificially high times to discourage getting in the queue and artificially low times for lesser draws to encourage going there instead.
We did stranger things express at like 1:30 with a posted 60+ wait, saw the standby line was NOT 60 as we flew through express, and jumped in standby after our express run, our at 2am. 1 express and 1 standby run in 30 minutes with a posted 60 minute wait.
We did stand by monsters with a 30 minute wait and it was a walk on.
It was so bad we started getting in line to see the line, then deciding whether we jumped to express, stayed standby, or left based on the line length and our prior experience. The times were ridiculously off most of the nights.
Inexcusable 30 years into the event. That’s why it has to be intentional.
If I'm willing to believe it's intentional it's a great way to get people to stop for food and drink while they wait for wait times to cool down.
- Aug 17, 2009
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Depends on your definition of "intentional". It's not like some big company-wide conspiracy being pushed or something, but some venue leads will choose to do it for various reasons.
For example, you mentioned a posted 60+ minute wait for ST at 1:30 AM. The scareactors have a hard out time at a certain time, so it's important you keep the queue lines low in the last hour of the event to ensure guests can experience the house while it's properly staffed.
Other than that, "30 years into the event" really means very little here. I mentioned this somewhere else earlier in the event, but it's almost all new house leads this year compared to most years which have a decent number of returning players. They also have guidance created for wait times, queue builds, etc. from the previous year at each venue, but in a year like this one where the queues are wildly changed all across the board, most of those only help so much.
For example, you mentioned a posted 60+ minute wait for ST at 1:30 AM. The scareactors have a hard out time at a certain time, so it's important you keep the queue lines low in the last hour of the event to ensure guests can experience the house while it's properly staffed.
Other than that, "30 years into the event" really means very little here. I mentioned this somewhere else earlier in the event, but it's almost all new house leads this year compared to most years which have a decent number of returning players. They also have guidance created for wait times, queue builds, etc. from the previous year at each venue, but in a year like this one where the queues are wildly changed all across the board, most of those only help so much.
- Apr 26, 2018
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Guests were taking about it in line and they speculated one reason was to push the express sales in the park the night of the event.
